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Theres a story in everything: Middle Names

At work during a lull, my mind started to wonder… wonder far and away. That just happens huh? You will start to think about something at work that thought leads to another which leads to another and before long you went from thinking about supply reordering to why couldn’t Jack and Rose both get on the floating piece of wood (from the movie Titanic)…this is life and death you guys!Don’t just give up! Haha. So today my thoughts ended up at my middle name: Robin. (btw…wasn’t it so annoying growing up when there was that kid that acted like their middle name was something that was so dreadful that they guarded it like the government guards the gold at Fort Knox. And when you found out years later the “mysterious middle name” was John. lol. We’ve all experienced this..I’m pretty sure.)
Interesting fact: middle names did not appear until the mid-17th century! Even then it was extremely rare…largely only wealthy families started to give their children “two names.” By the time of the Civil War middle names started to catch on but it was only until the 1900s when everyone had a middle name. (credit to Robert W. Baird, “The Use of Middle Names.”) So all in all middle names are a relatively new thing!

When I was little I hated my middle name (it could be worse…Bertha or Brunhilda or something like that! Sorry all Bertha’s and Brunhilda’s!). The main reason for my dislike was this lady, who was one of my best friend’s mom at the time had the name Robin. She was a cleaning FREAK! If you touched the bleached white walls at her house she would threaten, “Do that again and you will be helping with spring cleaning! Or I will give your parents a call and you will get a spanking!” (she was completely serious too! And ya…terrifying! Getting spanked by your parents is one thing, getting spanked by a non-relative? Terrifying…and bizarre) Once my little sister touched the wall and got a smudge on it and she had to not only clean it but sit in the corner for forever! My 7 year old self was annoyed that I shared part of my name with this woman. Would I some day grow up to be just like her? One day, I wanted to know why, why on earth my Mom and Dad gave me the same name as this scary woman-so I asked them.

They told me the story behind my name. For those of you who don’t know, my first name is Autumn. So coupled with my middle name you have Autumn Robin. My Mom said that she loves the fall season- the turning of the leaves, the cool weather, bon fires and flannel. So when I was born she told my Dad, “Let’s name her Autumn!” Makes sense. What about Robin? Was it the name of a great relative my parents wanted to honor? Nope, there are actually no Robins in our family! My Mom told me simply, “I love Robin birds! So we decided why not make her middle name Robin?”
So I found out my name, Autumn Robin is a shout out to nature…and some of my Mom’s favorite parts about it! (Next thought…was my Mom a hippy?)

Some people have two middle names, some people don’t have any! What’s the story behind your middle name?

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3 thoughts on “Theres a story in everything: Middle Names”

This was fun to read. I have the same name as my dad and one of my brothers. My full name. And my family calls me by my first and middle names combined. So I’m JohnRaymond in my house. That’s just eh. I have a friend I’ve known more than four years and one day I realized I didn’t know her middle name. So I asked. Her response, “I don’t tell people unnecessary things.” Like what? After four years of constant talking. She’s dumb. Haha